East Lansing Public library joins movement, debuts accessible pantry

As the teen librarian, Lee-Cullin overheard that some of her adolescent and young adult patrons hadn't eaten breakfast or lunch, and didn't have the means to buy or prepare it for themselves. Paying close attention, she heard about high schoolers who needed not just food, but personal hygiene products and school supplies, too.

"The need surprised me a bit," says Lee-Cullin, a Chicago-land native. "But it's something I've seen in a lot of communities. The reputation of an area might be more affluent than all of the members of that community."

Lee-Cullin took matters into her own hands starting in 2015. She brought in a plastic supply bin and put it in the library's teen room. Every week, she bought things like soup, Chef Boyardee and Pop-Tarts to fill the bin. Every week, things disappeared. Soon, library patrons got involved and started putting things in the bin, too.

As the cycle continued, Lee-Cullin explored additional ways to dispense needed items. She arrived at an idea for an anonymous, accessible pantry that could be placed outside the library door. In late 2016, she presented the concept at the Michigan Library Association's Library SOUP—a fundraising event that empowers local residents to financially support neighborhood projects. Her idea was awarded $630 and people stepped forward, offering to help.

Within months, library patrons, city departments, MSU sororities, and supporters had built, painted and stocked the small, free-standing pantry for anyone needing food, school supplies, personal care items or information on crisis intervention programs. And on October 13, 2017, the box debuted, situated for discreet access near the library's front door.

Meanwhile cross-town, another person was simultaneously doing something similar to Lee-Cullin. In August 2017, Adrianna Flores had launched an effort to provide personal essentials like tampons, pads and toilet paper to low-income women through a small pantry. She had stationed her "Empathy and Equity Box" near Edgewood Village—a low-income housing complex on the northeastern edge of East Lansing.

"It was all serendipitous," says Flores, a recent graduate of Michigan State University. "Jessica and I didn't even know of each other and didn't even meet until the end of September. It all just came together."

Flores and Lee-Cullin met and agreed to unite behind a single name and movement. In October, the second Empathy and Equity Box—or E2 Box for short—was completed and stationed in a nook near the library's main entrance. A small engraved plaque on the outside of the bright blue and white 5-foot tall structure invites people to "take what they need, leave what you can." Tampons and pads, cereal, dry and canned goods, snacks and school supplies rotate on the shelves, visible through a see-through door.

"It's amazing we were thinking along the same lines at the same time," says Flores. "I'm so happy these boxes exist and hoping they will be at other places, too. On the other hand, I'm sad that the need is even there. But it's good that so many people are saying it's not OK and are addressing the issue."